and ahead of the virtual ceremony for the 2020 go to medal awards we profile the 2nd of 3 laureates british novelist q. and. a back in 2015 fadlallah alexei of it won the nobel prize for literature for work that as the jury remarked was a monument to suffering and courage in our time the writer is famous for chronicling her country's troubled history through carefully constructed 1st hand accounts today she's one of the most outspoken voices of the coordination council that's a group that seeks new elections and talks with europe's last dictator. a nobel laureate in literature on her way to question the famous author took the opportunity to warn against a split in the nation pitting the lucan schank of system against peaceful demonstrators. but. this year if we are separated in this way become divided in this way we will surely slide into

a civil war which is bad is very dangerous our goal is to unite society and help overcome a political crisis not to initiate any overthrow. but it could attack is precisely what the members of the newly founded coordination council are accused of the council insists it only wants to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power and balance. what we saw in the 1st 3 days of the confrontation when people were treated like that me was like something from the last century we have to talk to each other argue with each other my ideal is the red green flag in one hand the white red white in the other. but. the goal is to unite the demonstrators in white red white and the looking faithful in red and green. but look at still determined to put the demonstrations down using brutal

force. many here welcome interventions from artists like alex a it. this besides you don't muck with facts writers can say something in a way that goes straight to the heart can be very rational so that one forgets humanism and so on she reminds us of these general human values. my knees and even think that it and then the poem get them. settle on a look see if it says if she were younger or not you know she might consider a role as a mediator but look at shrink oh has no interest in mediation you rests in minsk and other cities continue. that lana i like save it speaks people do listen and joining me to speak about the voice of artists and intellectuals in dollars is my colleague adrian kennedy welcome adrian now we saw alex save it on her way there to her appointment with this investigative committee do you know what

happened there was she didn't spend much time at the investigative committees headquarters she left quite quickly saying that she had invoked her rights not to testify against herself not to answer questions and reiterating that the council's only goal was to unite society now other members of this coordination council that's really seeking dialogue have also been targeted have they not that's right former culture minister. was questioned by investigators on choose day he was forced out of his job as director of the state young. fear after calling for new elections and complaining about the brutal suppression of the demonstrations he's one of the highest profile civil servants to come out publicly against the regime and many actors at the theatre he ran have resigned in solidarity it's striking and perhaps also encouraging that literary voices are

actually being heard in this debacle d.w. has also spoken to the young novelistic to martin you know that who is a critic of the regime yes our colleague. savina he's about spoke to him via video link he's one of the few people who are still in belarus in minsk who will speak to international media and we asked him about the role of intellectuals and about the dangers of speaking out for a look at that we have almost everybody silenced right now or dissidents who used to be in a position and who used to be imprisoned for many years there are silenced because they're very much afraid of course i am afraid and of course i realize words are they can put me in prison and so on but at the same time what what use of me if not saying to fright what showing what what is the meaning of my life being if i am silent in the moment when everybody needs the truth

there's so much image i was saying that he feared that many in the west see belarus as part of russia but it's been an independent state for around 30 years largely invisible to us he says there are problems there now and it's time for the world to pay attention to them ok while attention is what we are attempting certainly a courageous voice from martine of it's there in minsk and just for our viewers you can find the whole of that interview with victor martine of it's on our you tube channel d w books and we'll certainly continue to follow that story thanks very much for bringing us up to date on that adrian kennedy thank you. well the end of this month will mark 5 years since chancellor angela merkel made her famous assertion here shuffled us we can do this a statement that made was made at the height of the migration crisis that saw

germany take an unprecedented 1100000 immigrants in 2015 while many of those refugees had fled the civil war in syria and the air how much was one of them. because songs tell of pain and a lost homeland but also of hope 5 years ago pianist fled syria specifically the yarmouk refugee camp for palestinians. back there he played music to counter the nightmare scene of bomb craters and ruined buildings and created beauty to fight despair. it was hungry or so i don't can't feed my family but i was keeping playing piano we die anyway we will die from hunger in 56 days when i don't die play piano at least it's held me i don't think music it's feeds people or helped people really it's held the mentality

to see at least some of the why it's quite a place in the in all this got us through off in the. neighborhood of damascus it was under constant siege from i asked troops for years people there had no electricity no food or medicine and a ham played music. the images of him playing went viral when a ham fled to germany in 2015 he was already a minor celebrity and was quickly offered a public stage but he felt uncomfortable with the attention. that. i am here famous playing piano their pay. what we are a group of people i try to keep in connection with him it's not easy you know when somebody is still dying from hunger and you tell him look we speak about you hear what it's done for me there you know this is this is not easy here he is performing

at a refugee shelter in berlin a celebration marking 5 years since chancellor angela merkel's we can do it statement in the meantime ahab's wife and sons have joined him and he can work play in concert people listen to him. i am not star in the liver liver feel i am a star i feel responsible to tell it is blah blah blah what i tell it no it's important maybe it's not so important for people to hear it but at least i feel responsible to tell it and i use every mike every camera to tell that for people a ham songs deal with what he's experienced and he's also written his autobiography which was published in germany last year in it he tells of his father who built musical instruments and of his own childhood in a still peaceful syria he tells of the children he watched die and of the moment when i asked fighters burned his piano but constantly retelling his story takes its

toll. when i go on with this is story and remembering remembering the war it's a really true heavy here and this is why i will stop the music because when i go on i just well will still the pianist and the trombone or that this image but the horrible images from a hum past won't stop so easily hopefully he won't give up music it helped him during his darkest times and it helps him now allowing him to make a living and a new life in germany. this week we're celebrating the winners of the good to metal for 2023 leading lights whose were. work in literature and the arts has built bridges for cultural understanding and our 2nd laureate is britain's ian mckeown an incredible novelist whose mind works much like a lot of messed this thing the foibles of human nature with an ever painful

precision. and make human has published 20 novels and collections of short stories in 21000 he published 2 books. in machines like me he tells the story of an android and asks are robots perhaps better than humans. the cockroach is a biting satire about mckeown imagines in insect transformed into the british prime minister it's the most of firstly political novel he's ever written in mcewen is a vocal and passionate remainder describing breck's it as the most pointless masochistic ambition ever dreamed of in the history of these islands we lost that battle we were out we knew who. we were divided among ourselves in many ways. we don't just have to hope the. we can get away with that it works out i mean. you know we're now in a paradox who position of hoping that breaks it somehow works. you know there's

nothing else we can. see and make un has garnered numerous awards in the course of his career but he partly grew up in germany and has a sentimental attachment to the country so that got a medal has a special significance to be honored in the name of johan gang from carter is an honor indeed. sometimes we took what information we should send. us an unmanned space ship that was in an evil solar system we sent. we had to send a representative in humanity and i think good to would come pretty close to the top of my list because it is interests were not in literature and drawn. in writing a book in the nature of light. public administration and politics and

music. and there are similarities in mcewen is also a serious thinker with a vast range of interests in the tradition of the great polymaths. well worth picking up one of his books if you haven't already had the pleasure of all that does bring us to the end of this edition so until next time stay safe and stay tuned.

to the point from the opinions clear positions of international perspectives. it's official the republican and democratic parties in the u.s. have nominated donald trump and joe biden as their candidates in this fall's election now the campaign for the presidency taking in earnest will it be a dirty fight join us on to. the point. it's a convention to 30 minutes on t w. how the coronavirus is changing the world. china. europe. the situation is serious take it seriously. africa above. the usa the buyer sort of gets all the warbirds dracula's he goes away the pandemic spreads. in 75 minutes on d. w.

. every day counts for us and for our planet. global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation law how do we make cities green. how can we protect habitats. we can make a difference. good morning to you as the environmental series of the global 3000 on t.w. and almost like. a muggle or just love food for the russian soul. it runs deep breath. so many different walks of life. some are pumping and oddly tried but

all of them come straight from the hard disk or cd or even when there's no money dilution the marsh the engine come. from the 1st of the last to their final resting place the russians are g.w. documentary. this is news and these are all top stories. police in the bolivian capital minsk have arrested dozens of anti-government protesters and detained around 20 journalists this is russian president vladimir putin says the roosters alexander lukashenko has asked moscow to set up a russian reserve police force to deployed.